Siri for Crypto: a Chatbot That Helps With Trades and Transactions

If you’re reading this, you have probably completed a cryptocurrency transaction at some stage. So you probably remember the learning curve of figuring out what wallets, addresses, miner’s fees and public and private keys mean. Even as you get used to using cryptocurrencies, the hassles of inputting information, slow transaction times and worst of all fraud and theft persist.

For a complete newcomer, especially one with less interest in financial technology these problems are a big hurdle. You might have the hang of Bitcoin, but your grandmother would probably have less aptitude for it. But the persistent media attention given to cryptocurrencies is fueling a constant stream of new, curious users.

All this pressure to increase the usability of crypto is leading many to look for new ways to leverage technology to make the whole process easier. A new era of computing has dawned with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which enables the automation of functions that previously only a human could do.

One such project is TeleX AI, who want to use a chatbot to make the entire investing and trading process much easier.

A lot of buzz but a lot of hassle

It is kind of amazing how underdeveloped the user experience of trading and transacting cryptocurrencies is relative to the amount of interest the wider public has on the topic. Recent all-time highs in Bitcoin price has the public queuing up to get involved.

However, consider the difficulty in onboarding a new user. There is first the information gap: most people have never heard of exchanges, don’t know what an appropriate miner’s fee is, and have no clue how to trade currencies for each other or convert to and from fiat.

Add to this the extra security measures that some platforms require, like ID verification, and you have a recipe for a clunky onboarding experience at the best of times.

Furthermore, transaction times and fees are usually a fact of life even for experienced users. So any solutions that make this whole set of processes more straightforward will be able to cash in and also provide a real benefit to users.

These concerns are widely known in the crypto community. User experience and convenience are the impetus behind the Bitcoin fork attempt and the lightning networks of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

So when taken together, you really get an idea of how much manual hassles are involved in cryptocurrencies, and also that there is a real demand for solutions.

The rise of the chatbots

Telex AI intend to address these problems with a type of innovation that seems impressively simple when you see it functioning, yet only works thanks to complex and cutting-edge innovations in computer science. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning allow programs to iteratively change their own processes each time they’re executed, getting better and smarter as they are used. Coupled with the ability to process vast quantities of data and you have a solution that quickly learns how to deal with complex and nuanced inputs to give the right answer or carry out the right command.

In essence, this makes robo advisors and reps able to act as your personal assistant with a variety of tasks. Imagine having a personal assistant walk you through your first Bitcoin transaction and then be available to process all your transactions thereafter on demand. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of TeleX AI is that is all done via Telegram, an extra-secure Whatsapp rival that is particularly popular with the crypto community. The TeleX AI is, therefore, a wallet and chatbot in one. The TeleX AI team explained its functioning further in their whitepaper:

“Users interact with the chatbot through the Telegram interface; the conversations are interpreted and processed by the chatbot backend, which is connected to the liquidity engine. The liquidity engine tracks the user balances and routes the deposits to several altcoin exchanges to provide liquidity. The orderbooks of those altcoin exchanges are copied, and whenever a user gives an order through the Telegram interface, the order is given in one of the attached exchanges, depending on the price and availability of TeleX AI’s pooled funds in those exchanges.”

This offers both quantitative advantages because it allows users to work faster and qualitative improvements in that it reduces errors on the part of users.

The future of transactions?

There is clearly going to be a big interplay between cryptocurrencies and AI in the near future, and TeleX AI want to use their expertise to get an early position. The team, based in London, is headed up by experienced traders and developers in the crypto industry. They are holding their ICO on Nov. 21.